In the Bonus: Celtics assists way down

/

NEED MORE HELPERS

Without Rajon Rondo, you kind of saw this happening, right? Jordan Crawford leads the Celtics with 4.5 assists per game, a figure that ranks among the lowest in the league among team assists leaders. In fact, only Utah's Gordon Hayward (4.4) has a lower team-leading assists average.

BRADLEY BURNIN' UP

The biggest adjustment to Avery Bradley's improved scoring has come about because of a little addition and subtraction. The 3-point shot is still part of his game, but he doesn't rely on it as much as he did a year ago. And 2-point shots are not only up in terms of the percentage of shots he takes, but also in terms of his 2-point shooting percentage.

LEFT TO SCORE

Jeff Green doesn't shoot particularly well from the left side of the floor (40.7 percent), but that's where most of his points come from. Two sweet spots for him have been the left elbow and left baseline which is where about 30 percent of his points come from. Compare that to the right elbow and right baseline which make up about 12 percent of his scoring.

PARKER FINISHING STRONG

That old coaching cliche about it not being how you start, but how you finish? Tony Parker is truly taking that to heart this season, evident by his play in the second half being significantly better than the first. The big jump comes in 3s where he has yet to make one in the first half of a game but is shooting 42.9 percent on threes in the second half.

DUNCAN FROM MID-RANGE

Tim Duncan relies on the mid-range shot way more than most NBA forward/centers. It accounts for 46.5 percent of his shot attempts, well above the league average of 29.5 percent. And when it comes to shooting in the paint, Duncan continues to go against conventional big man wisdom. Shots in the paint account for 52.5 percent of his shots compared to the league average of 62.5 percent.

SPURS OFFENSE MOVING IN

Part of San Antonio's offensive hiccups is that they shoot less 3s and instead look to score from what is team weakness: mid-range shots. Last year more than 26 percent of the Spurs' shots were 3s. Now it's down to less than 24 percent. That coincides with San Antonio shooting more mid-range jumpers this year despite shooting just 34.8 percent on them, which is down from a year ago (42.2 percent).